The concept of IDENTITY is related to how a person sees her/his relation with the rest of the world. In other terms, we may say that it includes what the person makes of herself/himself and how he or she constructs a social relationship. It is undeniable the fact that identity influences learning, either positively or negatively, according to power or powerless. This way, if a student feels him/herself marginalized, or comes from a marginalized class, for example, this factor is very likely to influence negatively this student’s learning. Contemporary researchers of identity are centrally concerned with the diverse social, historical, and cultural contexts in which language learning takes place, and how learners negotiate and sometimes resist the diverse positions those contexts offer them.
It is mandatory that teachers investigate the identity of each student, as well as the identity of the group. The teacher must understand the students’ reality, in order to adapt content and strategies, providing the students the chance to grasp the most of it. A great example is in case of suggesting topics for written activities. In a class formed by very poor students, it would not be appropriate to ask them to write about their last trip. The topic does not fit to their reality, and it may cause embarrassment and an uncomfortable situation.
'Identity' on the Internet:
"Teacher Identity as Pedagogy: Towards a Field-Internal Conceptualisation in Bilingual and Second Language Education
http://dlll.yorku.ca/bmorgan/documents/IJBEBTeacherIDasPedagogy.pdf
NORTON, B. Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change. Harlow: Longman/Pearson Education, 2000.
Kumaravadivelu, B. "Understanding Language Teaching: From Method to Postmethod." London: LEA, 2006.
Wenger, Etienne."Toward a theory of cultural transparency: elements of a social discourse of the visible and the invisible." Dissertation. University of California: Irvine, 1990. http://www.ewenger.com/pub/index.htm
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